By BARNABY J. FEDER

After more than a decade-long decline, is heart bypass surgery poised for a comeback?

Dr. Mark W. Connolly operated on a patient at St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark.
Some doctors say it may be time to give bypass operations a second look. They include even some cardiologists who specialize in the far more popular alternative — using stents to keep coronary arteries open.

No one is predicting a sudden surge back to bypass, which is still a far more invasive and initially riskier way to treat plaque-clogged heart arteries, a condition that afflicts millions of Americans.

But in light of new safety concerns over the long-term risks of stents, as well as accumulating data indicating that the sickest heart patients may live longer if they receive bypass surgery instead, some well-known stent specialists say the pendulum may have swung too far away from bypass surgery.

“We as cardiologists have probably pressed forward on stent technology a little faster than we should have,” said Dr. Kirk Garratt, the director of research into stents and related heart therapies at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, one of the nation’s leading stenting centers.

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To view a video of an open heart procedure click here.